Among the important concerns of individuals who pursue bicycle touring is that the bicycle they use have convenient and reliable fittings for the components and accessories. In the case of the brakes, the functioning of the brakes requires that the cable sheath be "stopped" (secured) strongly adjacent the caliper, inasmuch as the cable run from the operating levers to the stop must be constrained to a fixed length so that movements of the operating levers produce corresponding movements of the calipers. With center pull calipers, a stop for the cable sheath of the rear brakes is received by a special separate bracket affixed (usually by brazing) to the seat stays above the seat stay bridge.
A strong rear carrier firmly attached to the bicycle frame is a "must" bicycle touring. Maximum lateral rigidity for minimum "tail wagging" of the bicycle caused by loads on the rear rack is best obtained by a rear rack having four points of attachment of the rack to the frame, two being the attachments of the struts of the rack to the rear wheel dropouts and the other two being the attachments of a pair of seat stay connecting arms of the rack to the seat stays. Sometimes those arms are attached to the seat stays by ring clamps. Alternatively, each seat stay has a lug with a hole for a fastener that accepts the respective arm on the rack.